Animal Collective / Atlas Sound @ Koko, 22 May 2008

Last week I fulfilled a long-standing ambition – to see Animal Collective live. Somehow, in the couple of years or so that I’ve been listening to them, I’ve never managed to see them play, though it hasn’t been for the lack of opportunities. So last Thursday I headed to Koko with anticipation and a little wariness. Their live rep can be erratic, so I was hoping for not too much experimental re-interpretation. But I needn’t have worried.


Before Animal Collective I saw the last few songs of Bradford Cox’s set as Atlas Sound. When I reviewed his solo album (which I really like), I wondered how Cox would re-create the dense layered sounds of Let the Blind... on stage. The answer was alone, with loops, backing tracks and guitar. This sort of performance can often be none-too-exciting to watch, but he just about managed it through engaging with the audience, good use of his tricks and the quality of his songs. Not amazing, but certainly a worthwhile warm-up.

Download: Atlas Sound - Winter Vacation

I’ve often seen Animal Collective described as psychedelic folk, which is puzzling after just listening to their records, but after seeing them live it makes no sense at all. The first part may have some truth, but folk? How many folk gigs do you spend having bass reverberate through your guts and leave with your ears ringing? Any reservations I may have had about the live show were resoundingly blown away by an incredible performance. If anything, the set was a lot tighter and conventional than expected, with songs often clearly recognisable, and sometimes even ending before the next one started.


Peacebone was a riot, the segue from Fireworks to Essplode and back again was thrilling, the new songs sounded great and the main set closer Brother Sport (one of these new ones) took me somewhere else. They also played a fantastic version of Comfy in Nautica, which is as close to a Panda Bear gig as we’re going to get.

For what was mainly three men mostly standing behind equipment, it was an absorbing and exciting gig. When not fiddling with wires or playing guitar, Avey Tare prowled the stage like an energetic weasel. The Geologist remained behind his gear, headlamp bobbing around Orbital-style. And over on stage right, Panda Bear alternated between pressing buttons and thrashing a stand-up drum-kit.

Sure, there was time spent standing intently (but never bored) while the trio cruised though their more downbeat experimental moments, but then the huge beats kicked in and the crowd started up again. Animal Collective have such an impressive back catalogue behind (and in front) of them, and their live show, lights and all, is so enthralling, that this gig couldn’t have been be anything other than a pure pleasure.

Download: Animal Collective – Chocolate Girl
Download: Animal Collective – Leaf House
Download: Animal Collective – Fireworks

Setlist:

Chocolate Girl
Comfy in Nautica
PeaceboneLeaf House
Daily Routine*
Bearhug*
Fireworks/Essplode/Fireworks
Lion In A Coma*
House*
Song For Ariel*
Brother Sport*

Encore

Nomorerunnin'*
Grass (Feels)


*Denotes a new song. Thanks to the good people of Drowned in Sound for the setlist and other info.

Top photo from Sophie LH's Flickr. Other photos from Jodi Warren's Flickr. I had some myself, but I went and lost my camera SD card like the silly fool I am. But Sophie and Jodi's are much better anyway.

You Will Love Each Other

HEALTH are a very blog-friendly band. Not just because they produce viscerally exciting records, or play slightly deranged gigs – though that should always be enough to get bloggers excited – but because it seems that not only are they happy to have their stuff promoted through blogs, they’re actually quite grateful to those blogs that have bigged them up. Which explains the ‘thanks’ list on the inside of the CD case of new album HEALTH//DISCO, even including my good self among a list of much more illustrious blogs.

HEALTH//DISCO isn’t a new album as such; it’s actually the fruits of a project (first seen here) which gathered a load of remixes, which are now presented in a full album format. The results are very impressive. Given the low-key process of putting this together, it’s no surprise that there’s a lack of current big name remixers, which is obviously a good thing because it eschews vogueishness in favour of good tunes. It’s an interesting beast all in, because although the original album was abrasive and thrilling, the remix set is much easier on the ears. It’s hardly light listening, but many of the LA band’s rawer edges have been smoothed out and swathed in beats and other effects, giving us an album that’s not just radically different from the original – it’s a whole new listening experience. And a very good one at that.

Since they’ve been nice to me, I’ll happily accept the posting restrictions to this one track. Luckily it’s one of the album’s best.

Download: HEALTH – Triceratops (CFCF mix)

Buy HEALTH//DISCO from Rough Trade.

Gilbert gets Stuffed

Here’s a plug that I’m doing for my colleague Dan who runs the new Stuffed night with his friends at Ravenous Promotions. Their first gig under their new guise is at Ginglik in Shepherd’s Bush on 12 June.

This isn’t just a piece of opportunistic publicity though. It also gives me an opportunity to write a bit about Gilbert, who is the most intriguing of the four artists on the bill. Gilbert – who is both a person and a band – specialises in a delightfully woozy pastoral electronica which is reminiscent of Lemon Jelly in its use of quirky samples, and also less-well know knob-twiddlers like Pilote. The sample-based tunes are fun, but Gilbert’s music is even stronger when veering towards the ambient, more song-based tracks and the Balearic (like Willow, No Time to Talk, Away).

I’ve no idea what it’s going to be like live, but coming through my headphones it sounds damn fine. The myspace indicates that rather than the prospect of a man hunched over a box of wires, you’ll see a band comprising four or five people playing drums and percussion, bass, organs, violins, horns, singing, and speaking. That sounds well worth checking out to me.

In addition to Gilbert, there will also be decent acoustic tunery from Stages of Dan and Tenuto. Should be a good evening.

Download: Gilbert – Self-Help for the English
Download: Tenuto – Doesn't Always Go That Way

Buy Gilbert’s self-tilted debut album from Rough Trade.

Here's the flyer for the evening:

The Bookhouse Boys

One of the definitive sounds of the year may well prove to be ‘big indie’, by which I mean large-numbered bands (say, more than five people) playing big-sounding music. I know that this type of thing can tread a thin line and very easily tip into ‘stadium indie’, which is very bad. But keep on the right side of the line and the results can be very good indeed. On this right side, my highlights of the year so far have been the new Islands album and the output of Broken Records. The fact that both of these bands have yet to make a major impact probably means that I’m barking up the wrong tree, but who knows.

Anyway, here’s another. The Bookhouse Boys are a large band, consisting of nine people, playing widescreen, epic tunes which manage to combine mariachi horns, strings, surf guitar, call-and-response singalongs, and snarling rock vocals and make them all seem like magnificently natural bedfellows. Their name, though not entirely accurate (their ranks include one solitary female), is after the secret society in Twin Peaks. If we’re talking films, I can’t think of a David Lynch movie which their music would be appropriate for, but I am imagining a sort of supercharged Sergio Leone soundtrack. Maybe a bit like a Spaghetti Western starring Steven Seagal. Now that would be quite something.

Download: The Bookhouse Boys – Dead
Download: The Bookhouse Boys – G-Surf

Buy the limited edition 7 inch singles Tonight and Dead here.

Singles going steady 24: David Devant & his Sprit Wife

The next single in the series is by a band which I know very little about. Sure, I’ve searched the internets and read some stuff, and David Devant & his Spirit Wife seem to be still active (at least up till last year), but it was best to ask Mrs Growl. After all, this was her CD which I inherited in the post-marital merging of music collections.

If you’re looking at that band name and you’re thinking along the lines of Victorian vaudevillian freakshow, you’re probably not too far wrong. You may get an idea of that from the photo above, and certainly from the picture of lead singer The Vessel here. And not just in their looks – Mrs Growl informs me that during performances of Ginger onstage when she saw them back in the late 90s, someone would grate a carrot over The Vessel’s head whilst he sang. Hilarious. I guess you had to be there though – Mrs Growl remembers their shows with some fondness and says they were fun. A little eccentricity, without tipping over into outright silliness of course, is always welcome in the all-too-often po-faced world of indie rock.

Anyway, I’m posting about these guys mainly because I like this song, in all its rattling, organ-wheezing cheeriness.

Download: David Devant and his Spirit Wife – Ginger

Esser - live radio session goodness

Another artist who’s been on here lately is Esser. A few weeks ago I raved, quite rightly, about his glitch-pop funbag of a single I Love You. Last week I got to hear what he sounds like doing his stuff live when he played with his band on Marc Riley’s BBC 6Music show. It was all good stuff, though he rocks out a bit more than I expected on Leaving Town, and there's that "she's never satisfied" moan on Satisfied - I'm always a bit suspicious when men come away with this sort of complaint. If she's really that unhappy with you, then you are doing something wrong - just sort it out. Still, ace tune though.

Download: Esser – Leaving Town (live on BBC 6Music)
Download: Esser – I Love You (live on BBC 6Music)
Download: Esser – Satisfied (live on BBC 6Music)

Download Esser’s I Love You single from play.com.

If you're uncomfortable with lots of perfectly good food being wasted, don't watch this video.

The Rosie Taylor Project - This City Draws Maps

The Rosie Taylor Project have been on here before, just after I first heard them playing live on Xfm and recorded and posted the tracks for the world’s listening pleasure. Since then, I’ve received a copy of their debut album This City Draws Maps from the nice people at Bad Sneakers Records, and I’ve had a listen.

Back then, I recommend The Rosie Taylor Project to anyone who likes their indiepop with a melancholy flavour. I said:

“Think Belle and Sebastian's less upbeat moments with a bit of Tindersticks, a dose of sweet boy/girl vocals, and a dash of beautifully mournful french horn, the latter of which is the thing that really seals it for me. They may proclaim a love for Americana types on their myspace influences, but this band's sound is quite a British one. Downbeat and lovely, it almost seems like it couldn't be made anywhere outside the north of England.”

I repeat this again, mainly because there’s little point coming up with a new description when the previous one does the job nicely. It’s worth doing another post though, because they’re a good band and their album is well worth checking out. There are only eight tracks, but all of them are quite lovely. Here’s one of them.

Download: The Rosie Taylor Project – Black and White Films

Buy This City Draws Maps from the Bad Sneakers shop.

Lest we forget...

Here’s a post I’ve been meaning to do for ages. Actually, if I had been quicker off the mark, it would’ve been three different posts, but my tardiness has given me the opportunity to combine them neatly into a single one. It’s basically an RIP to three giants of music who passed away in the past few months.

Klaus Dinger (1946-2008)

Klaus Dinger was a legend of German music, serving stints in some of that country’s greatest bands. He was in the original line-up of Kraftwerk as the drummer and percussionist for their first album, but left soon after, along with Michael Rother to form Neu! After the three albums by these fathers of Krautrock, where Dinger’s drumming gifted countless journalists the term motorik, he moved on to form La Düsseldorf, perhaps his least-appreciated outfit, but possibly his best. I’ve certainly been enjoying the latter band the most as I’ve been revisiting Dinger’s work lately. That first Kraftwerk album is brilliant, but much easier to admire than love. And though the best of Neu! Is amazing, there is a bit too much experimental pissing about at times. La Düsseldorf keep the motorik drive and combine it with good tunes for a winning combination. It’s a shame that their albums aren’t widely available, so grab a copy of the combined La Dusseldorf/Viva CD if you can!

Download: Kraftwerk – Ruckzuck (from Kraftwerk)
Download: Neu – Hallogallo (from Neu!)
Download: La Düsseldorf – Silver Cloud (from La Düsseldorf)
Download: La Düsseldorf – White Overalls (from Viva)


Joe Gibbs (1943-2008)

This was a such a criminally under-reported passing, so much that I first read about it on The Wirewool a week or so after it happened, and I’ve read precious little else since. Joe Gibbs was a legend of Jamaican music, producing some of that island’s best and best-known music encompassing rocksteady, dub, roots and a whole lot more. As well as producing some of reggae’s most instantly recognisable records (like Culture’s Two Sevens Clash, Althea & Donna’s Uptown Top Ranking) he did a bit of his own stuff as well along with Errol Thompson (as The Mighty Two) and studio house band The Professionals, which included Robbie Shakespeare and Sly Dunbar. In the past couple of decades he’s been less prominent and apparently even owned a chain of Kingston grocery stores (shocking though it may seem, people usually need food more than records), but now with his passing, time is right for a proper appraisal of his genius. If you’re interested (and you really should be) in checking out more, the excellent Soul Jazz compilation Joe Gibbs Productions is a fine place to start.

Download: Culture – Two Sevens Clash
Download: Joe Gibbs and the Professionals – Stonewall Jackson
Download: Althea & Donna – Uptown Top Ranking


Humphrey Lyttelton (1921-2008)


Humphrey Lyttelton is here not so much because of his musical output, but because of his long-standing role as chairman of the BBC Radio 4 comedy ‘antidote to panel games’ I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue. He was always the genial host, and kept listeners constantly amused with just how far he could stretch his pre-watershed double entendres without attracting the censor. That’s how I know and love Humph, though he was also a legend of Bristsh jazz. On hearing of his death, Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood blogged "We were all sorry to hear of Humphrey Lyttelton's death - he was an inspiring person to record with, and without his direction, we'd never have recorded/released Life in a Glasshouse. So go and find Bad Penny Blues, and celebrate his life with some hot jazz…” So I did.

Download: Humphrey Lyttelton & His Band – Bad Penny Blues
Download: Radiohead – Life in a Glasshouse (featuring Humphrey Lyttelton)

Things in Herds

It does seem like extraordinary humility. The blurb on the Things in Herds website announces their new album thus:

"It does feel somehow irresponsible to be adding to the unimaginably huge flood of music in the world today. Still, it's a fairly short album so it shouldn't take up to much room at the party. It's also pretty damn quiet, and should be more than content to hover in the corner and to leave fairly early. Without causing a fuss."

There’s so much right about this. There is an unimaginably huge flood of music around today and much of it is a torrent of garbage, but the people adding the crap to the pile are either unaware of this, or are too busy counting the bags of money to care. At least Things in Herds have a certain self-awareness. They know that theirs is a minor release on a minor label and will never be a top seller. They know that they’re unlikely to be the toast of the party, and that there will be no big fuss made.

But so often, the loudest voices at the party are those of crashing bores – all bluster and no substance. It’s in the corners where the most interesting people are found, who though quiet have so much more to offer. Nothing is Lost is quiet – this is a world of hushed male-female vocals, understated harmonies, gently picked guitar, carefully brushed snares, and lightly touched keys. But therein lies its great strength.

I first heard of this Brighton-based duo on the Fence Records compilation Don’t Fudge With the Fence Made last year (their previous album Everything Has to End Somewhere was released on the Fife label), and my introduction was the gorgeous You Know, which was probably the highlight of a very fine collection of songs. It’s good to see that this song is included on Nothing is Lost along with nine other works of almost impossible beauty. It’s very reminiscent of Fence compatriot James Yorkston, particularly his most recent stripped-down outing Year of the Leopard.

Leaving early is fine, because this is music for after the party. For the wee small hours, the dark corners, for relationships realised and emotions focused, for happiness and sadness. And although these songs are instantly attractive, I’m sure that they’ll stand the test of time. It really is a remarkable album.

Download: Things in Herds – You Know
Download: Things in Herds – Nothing is Lost

Nothing is Lost is out on 2 June. Buy from the Fence website and yer usual download outlets.

Jeremy Warmsley - new single!

I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s worth saying again. Jeremy Warmsley has a new single coming out soon. It’s a precursor to his forthcoming second album out on Transgressive later this year, but crucially, neither track on the single features on the album. So although that alone is a reason to get it, the main reason is because it’s great. The double A-side features The Boat Song, which was co-written with Emmy the Great who naturally also sings on the track, as well as a cover of New Order’s Temptation, the excellence of which actually lies in is faithfulness to the original, rather than any fancy re-interpretation.

Both of these songs will of course be familiar to anyone who's been following Jeremy and Fay Buzzard's Welcome to our TV Show, but you can check out the studio recordings on this post – The Boat Song is present in the shape of its video and Temptation in the shape of the radio edit. Nobody really likes radio edits, so hopefully this is an encouragement to buy the 7 inch when it comes out on 2 June.

Download: Jeremy Warmsley – Temptation (Radio Edit)

Pre-order the single from Transgressive.

Video!

JIM, not Jamiroquai

The arrival a few months ago of A Little Bit of Feel Good, Jamie Lidell’s calling card for new album JIM had some people reaching for the dreaded J-word. It seems that if a white man plays soul and funk, he’s a charlatan, peddling weak jazz-funk, just like the man in the silly hat. But come on. Saying that JIM is like Jamiroquai is as daft and wrong-headed as saying that because Arcade Fire play big anthemic rock, they sound just like Coldplay. Have a closer look at the snipers and you’ll probably find that they’re people who rarely stray away from indie rock, and who have little knowledge of funk and soul.

However, although it won’t be Jay Kay's name on your mind as you listen to JIM, there will be other famous names there. Jamie’s mining some rich influences and you’ll be reminded of Otis (Wait for Me), Stevie (A Little Bit of Feel Good and particularly the synth-funk of Figured Me Out) and Marvin (All I Wanna Do) as well as doses of both Motown and Southern Soul. There’s nothing here that will remind you of his earlier work with Super_Collider, and not even the edge that his previous retro-soul album Multiply had, but I’m really not complaining - this sort of thing is right up my street.

You may legitimately complain about the weakness of Lidell’s lyrics, that he’s too in thrall to the past, and you might even get away with calling JIM a pastiche, but what the heck, when the music’s this good, it would be nuts to complain too much. And if the indie bores still can't stand it, just use it as an excuse to check out some of his influences. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Download: Jamie Lidell – Wait for Me
Download: Jamie Lidell – Figured Me Out

Buy JIM from Rough Trade, or download from bleep.com

Yet another Wave Pictures post

Here’s yet another post on The Wave Pictures. It’s needed for three main reasons:

1. I was on Blog Fresh Radio last week, talking ineloquently about the band. You can hear it here (I’m 16.20 minutes in) including a play of You Love Me Like a Madman. In the interview, Bill from Blog Fresh managed a comparison that I’d been struggling to get to describe WP. The Smiths meets Hefner, he said. That’ll do nicely I thought.

2. Their new album Instant Coffee Baby is out now. You should get it. It’s a wonderful collection of songs, some of them culled from their many previous CDR releases (which you can still get from their website). However, re-recording them is probably more to do with the ability of getting wider distribution from a bigger indie label, than the desire to make more polished recordings. That much is clear from the fact that the recording (done in the studio at the Duke of Uke ukulele shop off Brick Lane) still has that classic Wave Pictures rough-edged live sound. I’m pleased to say that there’s nothing polished here – just David Tatersall’s idiosyncratic voice, amusing, wry and plain silly lyrics and tremendous guitar playing, backed up by Franic Rozycki and Johnny Helm’s wobbly but immensely pleasurable rhythm section. It’s already a strong contender for my top 10 of 2008.

3. The Wave Pictures are a brilliant band who everyone should know about. I don’t need an excuse to keep posting about them, so I will.

Download: The Wave Pictures – I Love You Like a Madman
Download: The Wave Pictures – We Come Alive

Buy Instant Coffee Baby from Rough Trade or download from emusic.

Here's a bonus for all you poor people who don't have a record player - the b-side of previous single I Love You Like a Madman, which is as good, if not better, than anything on the album.

Download: The Wave Pictures - Holding Hands

Oh, and there was a Wave Pictures interview this week in Drowned in Sound too.

I'm (back) from Barcelona

I've been away in Barcelona with work, hence lack of updates this week. Nice work if you can get it, but unfortunately I didn't get to see very much of the city. I almost went to see Blood Red Shoes on Tuesday night, but in the end decided I don't like them that much. Still, appetite well and truly whetted for a return visit. Even better if it could co-incide with one of the city's excellent music festivals. If my trip was just three weeks later, it would have co-incided with what's probably the best festival line-up of the year. Sonar and Summercase look pretty neat too (though the latter is a little bit too Reading for my liking).

Here's the tenuous, cheap and easy mp3 link.

Download: I'm From Barcelona - We're From Barcelona

Singles going steady 23: Dinosaur Jr

In which J Mascis reaches inside to bring out the inner Brian Wilson. He succeeds brilliantly. Why doesn't he do this more often?

Download: Dinosaur Jr - Take a Run at the Sun

Check out previous Singles going steady.

All is full of gold

Wherever you read about Santogold first, it certainly won’t have been at this blog. If you’re at all interested in Santi White, you won’t need me to tell you that she’s from Brooklyn, that she’s toured with the likes of the Beastie Boys and MIA, and that she’s currently the toast of the internets. You’ll have read that on much cooler blogs last year. You also won’t need me to tell you about hot 12 inch releases andher work with Spank Rock, Switch and Sinden and Mark Ronson. And now that her self-titled debut album’s about to come out, you wont need to hear from me that it’s a pleasingly vibrant smorgasbord of styles, encompassing indie post-punk (L.E.S. Artistes, You’ll Find a Way ), dubby rock (Shove It, My Superman), straight up pop (Say Aha, Lights Out) and songs that sound just like MIA (Creator, Unstoppable) – all held together by Santi’s fine voice. You also don’t need me to post these tracks from the album, because you’ve got them already. But what the hell – it’s a great album and I post about things I like. Even if I’m not at the vanguard of popular culture. Bear with me, all you cool, cool people.

Download: Santogold - Say Aha
Download: Santogold – My Superman

Pre-order Santogold from Rough Trade.

Noah and the Whale live radio sessions

My first inkling of Noah and the Whale occurred back at the End of the Road Festival in 2006. Emmy the Great announced herself and backing band – consisting of Jeremy Warmsley and Charlie Fink – as ‘Emmy and the Whale’. This was the first time I set eyes on Charlie, and a fine sight he was, as he picked at an amusing furry bass. The next time I saw him was a month or so later at what must have been one of the first Noah and the Whale performances (he had previously gone under the name Johnny Hatracket!) at an Emmy-curated show at the Luminaire. First impressions were very good. Simple, catchy folk-pop tunes.

Fast-forward another few months and Noah and the Whale and Emmy the Great’s band were one and the same entity, with Emmy taking centre stage for her songs, and Charlie stepping up to the mic for Noah and the Whale tunes. An interesting combination for sure, and one that underlined these artists’ inter-dependency and musical similarities.

But what a difference a year (and a bit) makes. Although that same-band-different-act set up seemed pretty unsustainable to me, it turns out (rumours, rumours) that the parting of the ways between Emmy and Noah wasn’t so amicable. Who knows what’s happened, but it’s a shame if two of London’s premier folk-pop exponents are not on speaking terms. Anyway, for the purposes of this post, in the months since I last saw NATW in January 2007, their star has risen slowly but surely. They’ve established a line-up (which sometimes includes Laura Marling) played a lot of gigs around London and the rest of the country, and landed a major record deal, with an album on the way.

All the best to them. I really hope that they don’t become another forgotten indie band on Universal’s books – they’re too good for that. One thing that the deal does seem to have brought about is a more highly-polished sound. Listen to their new single Shape of my Heart and you’ll hear a fine tune, but something that’s much more pop than folk. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing. Bands change, sounds evolve, and often this is for the better. I’ll be watching out for Charlie and co – they could be really great as long as they keep their feet on the ground.

This post is really just a long-winded reason to post some radio session tracks I recorded back in January, which Noah and the Whale recorded for both Marc Riley’s BBC 6Music show and John Kennedy’s Xposure on Xfm, including two versions of the same track. Spot the difference!

Download: Noah and the Whale – 2 Bodies 1 Heart (live on BBC 6Music)
Download: Noah and the Whale – If I Die Tonight (live on BBC 6Music)
Download: Noah and the Whale – Jocasta (live on BBC 6Music)
Download: Noah and the Whale – Peaceful (live on BBC 6Music)
Download: Noah and the Whale – Peaceful (live on Xfm)

Buy Shape of my Heart from Rough Trade.

Singles going steady 22: Tanya Donelly

Tanya Donelly seems to have been a bit quiet of late. That's maybe because she has. Her last studio album was in 2004, with only the live album This Hungry Life since then. But it's understandable - as someone with a small child, I can understand the lack of activity on the music front. Sometimes there are other, more important things to deal with. In fact, Donelly must be really enoying the whole kids thing, because according to a post on her messageboard from about a month ago, she reveals that she's training to be a birth doula. But those fans eagerly awaiting new material, fear not because she also reveals that she and Dean (her husband) have started writing again, and there's the tentative suggestion that some of the fruits of this might be seeing the light later this year.

Anyway, back to the point of this post. The only CD single in my collection under Tanya's own name (as opposed to stuff she's been involved in with Throwing Muses, Belly and The Breeders) is the Sleepwalk EP from 2001. I seem to remember being a little obsessed with this EP at the time, but revisiting it now doesn't meet with quite the same levels of swooning from me. It's still a lovely four-track collection though. Lead track The Storm made in onto the Beatysleep album, but I'm posting two others which I like better - After Your Party, a gorgeous, sad acoustic tale of thwarted dreams and the breezy country-pop of Days of Grace. Somehow despite my love for this EP, I never parted with cash for any more Donelly solo stuff. Not sure why. Maybe this was enough to keep me happy.

Download: Tanya Donelly - After Your Party
Download: Tanya Donelly - Days of Grace

Download the other EP tracks from emusic.

Emmy + Earlies = The Great

Second old favourite of the day…

It’s been a long time since I’ve had a proper Emmy the Great post here, but now there’s good reason to have one. Mainly because in a post on her myspace blog on Monday, she confirmed that the long-awaited debut album is now finished

"it's our last day in the studio with the earlies. euan is going to glasgow to mix the record, and tom and i are joining him in two days when i've finished voting for anyone but boris. so far it doesn't sound shit, but there's still time. name and tracklisting here soon."

So we have both have false modesty (how can Emmy’s songs + Earlies production be anything other than great? – see albums by Micah P Hinson and King Creosote for evidence of supreme Earlies production) and a fine piece of political sense (for people outside London/UK – ‘boris’ is one Boris Johnson, the Tory buffoon who may well be London Mayor on Friday – gah!). I’ll be joining Emmy in voting for someone who isn’t Boris and waiting in expectation for the release of her ‘not shit’ album.

Here’s a couple of tracks from her last ‘release’ the myspace-only Chris Moss EP from last December.

Download: Emmy the Great – Winchester
Download: Emmy the Great – Long Island (Wave Pictures cover)

The return of The Young Republic

I’m going back to some old favourites today, starting with The Young Republic.

The first set of good news is that they’re coming back to the UK for a tour next month, starting at the Borderline on 14 May. The bad news (for me) is that I’m going to be out of the country with work on that very date. A great shame, since the gig also features labelmates Woodpigeon the very fine Speck Mountain. Here’s hoping for another London date before they head back to Nashville.

The other good news for YR fans is the promised covers album, which is initially going to be made available as a series of free downloads from the End of the Road Records website. They’re pretty good at covers this lot, as anyone who witnessed their joyous Dylan (and some others) covers set at End of the Road Festival last year (that's the occasion in the pic above). Julian Saporiti even had his face painted up Rolling Thunder Revue-style. It’s no surprise then that the first covers track made available is by Bob.

Download: The Young Republic – Isis

If you’re in London, I strongly encourage you to go to the Borderline on 14 May. It’ll be a great evening, for sure.

Quiet Village - Silent Movie

Remember chill-out? The non-genre that launched a thousand compilations, most of them featuring Groove Armada’s By the River. I’m not sure if the 90s revival has started yet, but it’s surely only a matter of time, and when it does there’s surely going to be a big element of these late-night grooves.

I mention this because it’s not only the whole concept of chill-out that’s been in my mind whilst listening to Silent Movie, the debut album from Quiet Village, it’s that particular Groove Armada song that’s been revived in my mind by the lead track Victoria’s Secret. Oh, and that other downbeat monolith, Kinobe’s Slip Into Something More Comfortable.

No matter how much the press blurb might go on about ‘master crate-digger’ Joel Martin and Matt ‘Radioslave’ Edwards and their blend of acid rock, vintage soul Italian film soundtracks and BBC library music, this is just a blissed-out Balearic album, pure and simple. All the previous stuff may be true, but what I’m hearing sounds like it’s been put through an after-hours Ibizan filter. Just listen to the wave and birds sound effects, the languid horns, and the loping beats. Heck, it even veers a little towards Yacht Rock, that most Balearic of guilty pleasures. And no matter how much they might protest, this album is retro and it takes me right back to the late 90s. I totally love it.

Download: Quiet Village – Free Rider
Download: Quiet Village – Pacific Rhythm

Buy Silent Movie from Rough Trade or download from emusic.

Islands – Arm’s Way

Ways to put people off buying your record:

1. Have a uninteresting, generic-sounding band name
2. Have an awful pun in your album title
3. Have rubbish cover art (see it here)

Ways to encourage people to buy your record:

1. Have an epic sound, where guitars are cranked up and augmented by sweeping strings and massed vocals. Your arrangements, which although they add some complexity to essentially simple songs, never seem too fussy and always help the songs to sound bigger and better. And though of course this will lead to inevitable comparisons to Arcade Fire, you know that healthy doses of Jarvis Cocker-esque style and swagger and some acerbic lyrics make your music very much your own.

That last point of course trumps the first three and means that anyone who pays too much attention to the outward appearances really is missing out.

Download: Islands – Life in Jail
Download: Islands – In The Rushes

Islands' new album Arm's Way is out on 19 May. Available from all these good record shops. It's very good.

Strange Fruit for David

The Wave Pictures have a new single out on Monday. It's called Strange Fruit for David and it's brilliant. You should buy it. These guys are now my favourite band that I've never seen live, though it's not for lack of them playing. It's just in these lean gig-going times (for me) that I've somehow not been able to get to any of their frequent London gigs. There are a few up-coming that I really must make an extra-special effort for. This was the resolution I made last night when listening to their fantastic recent single I Love You Like a Madman and the equally good b-side Holding Hands.

I'm genuinely excited about Instant Coffee Baby, their first album for Moshi Moshi, and second 'proper' release. Of course, that's not counting their many self-released CDR EPs and albums, still available from their website. So much so that this post is just a celebration of my anticipation, and an excuse to post some fine live session tracks that David Tattersall and co. played on Marc Riley's BBC 6Music show at the end of last year. Plus, for a bonus extra, a video of them singing Sweetheart on for the ever-excellent Take Away Shows. If any of the bunches of young bucks currently doing the rounds in London deserves success, it's these guys.

Download: The Wave Pictures - Long Island (live on BBC 6Music)
Download: The Wave Pictures - Leave the Scene Behind (live on BBC 6Music)
Download: The Wave Pictures - Just Like a Drummer (live on BBC 6Music)
Download: The Wave Pictures - We Dress Up Like Snowmen (live on BBC 6Music)

Pre-order Instant Coffee Baby from Moshi Moshi.

The Shortwave Set – Replica Sun Machine

I’ve been waiting for this album for a long time – as noted in my previous post, almost three years. On the strength of a cracking little seven inch at the end of 2006, I half expected a new album to drop last year, but The Shortwave Set were obviously spending quality time in the studio with famous friends Brian Burton and Van Dyke Parks. They landed this enviable opportunity simply because Mr Mouse liked their debut album The Debt Collection so much that he invited Greenwich’s finest to support Gnarls Barkley and the rest is history…

Now that I’ve had a few weeks to listen to second album Replica Sun Machine, it’s that debut album which is still providing the sticking point for me. Because even though The Shortwave Set are still very much the same retro-psychedelic shape, even though the new album is packed with great pop songs, and even though the production is top-notch, there’s something missing. I think it’s because the production is just a bit too top-notch, a bit too clean-sounding. Part of the great appeal of the debut was its slight ramshackle nature, with sparkling tunes and a dash of whimsy. It wasn’t crisp, but its 60s psychedelic pop, complemented with a decent dose modern electronics was a joy to behold, and every song was a gem. The new one, for all the high-level input, the sweeping sting parts and general enhancement, is just not quite as magical. I wonder if they'll be describing themselves as 'Victorian funk' this time around.

That said, there’s still a lot to enjoy. The songs rattle along nicely and unlike many producers, Burton doesn’t impose a particular style. The band’s established sound is still very much intact and that makes me think that this is probably an album that I'll love more over time. I really hope that this is the record which brings the Shortwave Set the success that they so rightly deserve, and maybe then more people will re-discover their earlier classic.

Download: The Shortwave Set – Yesterdays to Come
Download: The Shortwave Set – I Know

Pre-order Replica Sun Machine from Rough Trade. And give yourself an extra treat by buying The Debt Collection.

Update: thanks to Soundbites, I now know that The Debt Collection is available to download, totally gratis from the Shortwave Set website. Now you've no excuse!

Atlas Sound

I never really got into Deerhunter, so should I expect to like Bradford Cox’s solo venture Atlas Sound any better? I think the answer, for the moment at least, is a tentative ‘yes’, although please feel free to encourage me further in a Deerhunter direction.

Cox has gone on the record, talking about his new venture as an outlet for ideas that he couldn’t work out with a five-piece band. What this probably means is that he just wanted to have some freedom to mess around in the studio, adding layers of nice fuzzy guitar and other electronic noise(s). Parts of the album Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel sound like what Brian Wilson might have made had he listened to a lot of Sonic Youth. Other parts glide by in a woozy, dreamlike way, but it's never background music, it's a little too unsettling for that. Fans of M83 and Animal Collective will find plenty to like here. It's an album of complexity and depth which I still don't feel that I've fully appreciated yet, but there's plenty time for that.

Download: Atlas Sound - Recent Bedroom
Download: Atlas Sound - After Class

Let the Blind... is out in the US now on Kranky. The album gets its UK (and rest of world) proper release on 5 May on 4AD, but you can buy import copies now from Rough Trade.

Atlas Sound is supporting Animal Collective on their upcoming European tour, so get down early if you're going. I'd be intrigued to see how this record is going to be done live.

Tindersticks – The Hungry Saw

When my promo of the new Tindersticks album arrived last week, my colleague asked me if they were still as miserable. Another colleague answered the question by merely pointing to the sleeve, which as you can see, might give you an idea about the content.

But there’s something reassuring about that, isn’t there? Sometimes you don’t want bands to change too much. I don’t really want to see Tindersticks go all weird folk or add newer, spiker guitars. I want business as usual. I want lushly orchestrated soulful melancholy. I want Stuart Staples’ warm idiosyncratic vocals. I want that gorgeous downing-a-whisky-late-at-night feel.

And that’s sort of what I get with The Hungry Saw, and I’m very happy about that. Mind you, there’s a definite upbeat feel about many of the songs as they swish along, accompanied by the strings, organ and horns that we've come to know and love. There are some departures too. Nothing major mind, just little sideways excursions into the likes of jaunty seaside organ music (The Organist Entertains), instrumentals (Introduction, E Type) and a sparser, more experimental sound (Mother Dear). But mostly it's the familiar company of a good old friend.

All in, this is a very satisfying comeback. Although it’s been five years since Waiting For the Moon, I’ve not exactly been waiting impatiently for something new, but now it’s here it feels like they've never really been away. And though this album is full of melancholy, nowhere could it be described as miserable. Uplifting more like.

Download: Tindersticks - The Turns We Took
Download: Tindersticks - E Type

Pre-order The Hungry Saw from Rough Trade.

Sunny side up - The Breeders @ Koko, 16 April 2008

I like guest posts. Not only does it give me more posts for less work, but it also gives friends a forum to share music they love too. This is a particularly good one - a review my my friend Dan of a Breeders' gig in London last week...

If I enjoyed the Pixies return at all, it was down to Kim Deal, beaming stage-left as they exploded the untouchable band from outer space myth i'd fostered since my musical coming of age. And it's smiling - that unmistakable sign of a band enjoying themselves - that I associate as much as anything with The Breeders. Tonight's no different; Kim Deal relishing every moment and wearing the look of someone continually being surprised by their own songs (literally jumping at the start of one) and Kelley Deal's endearing childish self-consciousness.

Opening with the garage rock of Amps track Tipp City, followed by Huffer, and with their cover of Guided By Voices' Shocker in Gloomtown not far behind, The Breeders waste no time in making it clear that they're here to rock and to have fun doing it, before going into the more subtle details of their musical manifesto. Possible torch song We're Gonna Rise harks back to the raw beauty and poise of Doe from flawless first album, Pod. "No counsel, no grand strategy, No sword to fall on", but the lovely live reverb of Kim Deal's voice covers a multitude of sins, more than compensating for any loss in the clarity of Steve Albini's spacious recording on Mountain Battles. Walk It Off may have a classic Pixies bassline, but otherwise it's pure Breeders, wistful and hopeful. Mountain Battles opener Overglazed has Kim Deal modestly shrugging her shoulders as she packs away the keyboard afterwards, but its plaintive hypnotic refrain, "I can feel it", feels far from tentative. The gentle folk of Here No More is all gorgeous home-baked Deal sister harmonies.


If you want to get to the front at a Breeders gig, just wait for Cannonball. Other songs from the American-indie heyday of Last Splash also go down well with the audience; Divine Hammer, New Year, Saints, Kelley's deadpan delivery of I Just Wanna Get Along and No Aloha - remarkable live - followed around by its pregnant slide guitar. When they play early songs like Iris and the perfect pop of Fortunately Gone, my nostalgia is battled by a kind of anxiety; these songs fix something in the past, songs that were only half a decade old when I first heard them, but even then seemed unreachable. To have them opened up before me, I feel the weight of privilege, compelled to cherish the moment lest it should be the last chance. But The Breeders' smiles as they close with new song German Studies - Kim and Kelley having fun with the lyrical wordplay - put my nostalgia in its place; they're a proper band these days and I'm expecting to see those smiles again before too long.

Download: The Breeders - We're Gonna Rise
Download: The Breeders - German Studies

Buy Mountain Battles from Rough Trade or download from emusic.

John & Jehn continued

In this week of French people singing in English, here’s a couple more. Unlike Sebastian Tellier though, John and Jehn have actually made their home in London and they’re very very unlikely to ever be asked to represent their country at Eurovision. Not if they insist on playing their lo-fi Velvets-inspired art rock anyway.

After posting 20 L 07 a few weeks back and being quite impresses by that, I’ve been looking forward to hearing the whole album. After a few listens though, I’m not totally convinced, still not really feeling it. In a way John and Jehn tick the right boxes. The monochrome shots, the studied Gallic cool, the minimalist sound, the apparent Gainsbourg influences. I had hoped that the album would be much more than that, but what’s bugging me is the real lack of decent tunes in the songs.

The album is split into two sides (this is obviously just about making a point on a CD though) – a 'John side' and a 'Jehn side'. I don’t know if this is because they’ve written the songs for their respective sides, or if it’s meant to represent something more profound. All I know is that the Jehn side (tracks 6-10) is better, with more in the way of tunes, and the fuzzy guitars, cheap keyboards and boy-girl vocals just tend to work more effectively here. It’s like after messing about for five tracks, it begins to come together. So there are pleasures to be had on this record for sure, aside from 20 L 07, most notably You, Far Away and 1,2,3, but as a whole it could easily be accused of style over substance.

Download: John & Jehn – You, Far Away
Download: John & Jehn – 1,2,3

Buy John & Jehn from Rough Trade.

Singles going steady 21: Delakota

My memories of Delakota are a bit blurry. They centre around a gig at The Blue Note (not the original Hoxton Square one – the strange two-floor place in Islington that got demolished to make way for that horrible shopping centre) sometime in the late 90s. I had already been out that evening, I think, and had had a few. After Delakota took to the stage my friend pushed his way through the crowd, several sheets to the wind. I don’t really remember anything about the performance, though I do seem to remember that we danced like nutters throughout, which may have been due to an amazing set, or other lubricating factors. I also hazily remember continuing to dance at an after-party upstairs into the next day. Ah, days of being young and carefree.

Sometime around that gig I must have picked up a CD single (or maybe it’s an album promo) by Delakota. The band were formed by Cass Browne and Morgan Nicholls, who used to be in early 90s crusty noiseniks Senseless Things, but Delakota were a different beast, taking both baggy beats and Primal Scream-style retro American fixations as a starting point and progressing from there. The four tracks are all pretty decent. If my CD is an album promo, it suggests that the album was a good ‘un. Maybe someone can fill me in.

I’ve no idea if Delakota ever made much of an impact, but after the gig I never came across them much again. More recently Browne has been found drumming for Gorillaz (the Jamie Hewlett connection goes way back to Senseless Things cover art) and Nicholls seems to be a steady member of Muse’s touring set-up.

There you go – a fuzzy part of my CD single collection, but worthwhile all the same. Here’s a couple of tracks to remember Delakota by.

Download: Delakota – C’mon Cincinnati
Download: Delakota – 555

You can buy Delakota CDs at pretty low prices at Amazon marketplace. I could be tempted...

Teenagers – real vs. fake

Today’s conundrum – which teenagers? We have two sets – one real (sort of) and one fake for your consideration today. One even uses the word in their name. But which set, if any, is worth your time and money?

The first lot are the real ones, or at least they used to be until very recently. When Be Your Own Pet burst onto the scene two years ago, it was all frenetic teenage energy, attitude and a good few decent tunes to back it up. This time round, most of them have slowly crept out of their teens, with only drummer John Eatherly still able to be officially called a teenager. And it’s this very issue which seems to have inspired the whole album. Growing up is not always easy, and this much is clear right from first song Super Soaked when Jemima Pearl snarls “I don’t wanna grow up and have to let go” and by the time she gets to screaming “Don't wanna have responsibility! Don't wanna be a part of society” she’s already pissed off and the album’s hardly a minute old.

And so on, through songs about wild teenage parties, food fights, school murders and bastard boyfriends and the usual high school fayre. It’s all prolonged teenage angst bundled up in supercharged, shouty pop punk in two-minute packages. There’s nothing groundbreaking (this sort of music never is) and it’s all pretty ephemeral stuff but it’s a lot of fun while it lasts, and is guaranteed to blast away any musical mustiness in your brain. As you’d expect it’s best experienced live with Pearl a hyped-up blur on the stage while her bandmates throw all the necessary teen-punk shapes and the real teenagers in the crowd go nuts. People like me stand at the back, observing the spectacle, and like Be Your Own Pet, wish we were younger.

Download: Be Your Own Pet – Becky
Download: Be Your Own Pet – Twisted Nerve

Buy Get Awkward from Rough Trade or download from emusic.


The next lot are the fakes, because even though they’re called The Teenagers, they’re all at least in their mid 20s. Who knows, maybe it’s the whole don’t-want-to-grow-up thing that makes this French trio give themselves such a name. Their lyrics, in all their juvenile puerility are certainly only worthy of a teenager. As for the music, it’s very average electro-guitar-pop, which would probably have as much mainstream appeal as the Wombats or the Pigeon Detectives if it weren’t for these naughty lyrics.

Speaking of which, surely it’s because The Teenagers are French and therefore inherently more cultured and sophisticated that they’re getting any sort of attention at all. If it was a pasty-faced bunch of boys from the home counties playing this sort of music, they’d be ignored (we already have I Was a Cub Scout), and if it were a gang of shaven-headed northern oiks singing these lyrics, they’d be dismissed as sleazy pervs. But somehow the French factor makes them more acceptable. Who knows? It’s not like they’re terrible, they’re just not very good, and certainly nowhere near deserving of the hype they’ve been given. But no need to complain, that’s just the music business for you, eh?

Download: The Teenagers – Starlett Johansson
Download: The Teenagers – French Kiss

If you really must, you can buy Reality Check from Rough Trade. Maybe though, you'd be better off with these Teenagers.

Mind your language

So, Sebastien Tellier's got into trouble with his French Eurovision song today. This morning on Radio 4, I heard a French MP shouting about how terrible it was that the French entry is (partially) sung in English. What's the world coming to, eh?

We Brits like to point and laugh at the French and their language protectionism, as if they're a bit silly for doing so. But if we were in their position, faced by an encroaching behemoth of another language, threatening to engulf our own, we'd do exactly the same thing. If the tables were reversed, there would be tabloid articles every week about the decline of the Queen's English and how dangerous the French takeover is. I sometimes wonder why it is that the English dislike the French so much - but maybe it's because they're actually far more alike than they'd ever dare admit.

Anyway, here's a remix of the controversial tune which came my way last week.

Download: Sebastian Tellier - Divine (Midnight Juggernauts Remix)

The Rosie Taylor Project

The Rosie Taylor Project have a confusing name. Not a bad one, just a misleading one. Surely it's not unreasonable to think that there would be a female singer-songwriter called Rosie Taylor, with the 'Project' as her (all-male?) backing band? Imagine then my surprise to hear male vocals coming out of the radio, when I first heard their music played last week. It turns out that this Leeds-based band contains six people, only one of whom is a girl, and she's not even called Rosie.

But leaving name-related confusion aside, I'd recommend The Rosie Taylor Project to anyone who likes their indiepop with a melancholy flavour. Think Belle and Sebastian's less upbeat moments with a bit of Tindersticks, a dose of sweet boy/girl vocals, and a dash of beautifully mournful french horn, the latter of which is the thing that really seals it for me. They may proclaim a love for Americana types on their myspace influences, but this band's sound is quite a British one. Downbeat and lovely, it almost seems like it couldn't be made anywhere outside the north of England. This is a good thing.

Since the Rosie Taylor Project's live session for John Kennedy on Xfm was my introduction to the band, it may as well be yours too. Check out these three songs, along with another demo track I picked up. Incidentally, A Good Cafe on George Street (their current single) is actually about an old favourite of mine - The Elephant House cafe on George IV Bridge in Edinburgh. Since Mrs Growl is a bit of a pachyderm fan, this was naturally the first place I took her when we first went to Edinburgh together. Since then it's achieved some fame as the place where JK Rowling was reputed to have written the first Harry Potter novel. Anyway, enough of the Scottish nostalgia, on with the tunes!

Download: The Rosie Taylor Project - Sun on my Right (live on Xfm)
Download: The Rosie Taylor Project - A Good Cafe on George Street (live on Xfm)
Download: The Rosie Taylor Project - A Few Words of Farewell (live on Xfm)

Download: The Rosie Taylor Project - From the Crowd (demo)

The Rosie Taylor Project's album This City Draws Maps is out on Bad Sneakers Records on 5 May. Available from all good record shops, I guess.

Slight return?

Rarely has a such a hugely anticipated return been married to such lack of regard for a commercial sound. The single is out this week, as I'm sure you know. On single sided etched 12 inch no less. I'm very tempted.

In other related video news, click here to see a video clip for potential new single We Carry On.

And you can listen to the whole album on last.fm from 21 April.

Good stuff.